BarMonkey v2.0

Pictures and captions

This is a picture of the finished bar from the back. The Flat panel monitor is mounted to the wall. I used a wireless keyboard to avoid a little clutter.

This is a look at the icemaker valves. They use 1/4" tubing from the Pumps all the way to the glass the liquid is dispensed into. You can see the back end os a Compaq Desk Pro computer. Also visable are the two eight port relay actuators, a 12 volt power supplies, a netgear hub, and a kill switch for the 110v electronically actuated valves. You cal partially see the flojet pumps used also.

Here you see the FloJet N5000-140 pumps. The pruduct is single attached and the gas is series attached. You can also notice the reserviors are the original bottle. Currently I use stuffed paper towels to keep out unwanted things and prevent a vaccume from forming.

These are a couple external shots of the bar.

This is a picture of the Kit74. This is a relay actuator that works off of the parallel port. When you reboot your computer, the relay contacts are all closed for 1/10 of a second durring the BIOS post. When windows P&P gets a hold of it, it opens all contacts until you get into the GUI and turn them off. or setup a program to do it for you. Turning off P&P could have been another option, but the BIOS post problem still bothers me. Kit 74 was effectively nixed from my list of possible options.

This was the first attempt at getting 3" pvc piping to hold pressure. We wound up glueing the endcaps on and using lots of teflon tape to stop air / liquid leaks. It was made 5' tall so that I could compaire the dispensing properties with a 2.5' one. 2' tall, 3" round pvc reserviors should be sufficient for about 2.5 liters of liquid. I initially looked at this alternative to keep the reserviors consistant. I quickly saw that this would be overkill for what I would need in the end.

This is a closeup of an icemaker valve that made the final rounds of my testing. Also shown is the kit 108 serial port relay actuator. It was my chosen method of controling the valves. The Valve is 110v, which bothers me, but I decided to keep it.

This is a picture of the laptop that you can almost make out the application that webfiji wrote to test with. I am in the process of creating a large database of drinks for use with the bar monkey. In the end, you will be able to select items that you have in your inventory, and it will automatically show you only drinks that you have ingredients for.

These are the new Flojet N5000-140 CO2 powered pumps. The pumps were initially canned in the R&D phase. I decided to go with a pumpless system. this was because these pumps still require an actuated valve. I decided in the end to use the pumps due to issues associated with a pressurizes system.

These are the same pumps next to 2 of the WW pumps that were tested. The Flojet pumps are a bit large... The windshield washer pumps were an attractive option due to the cost of about $3.00 each, but were nixed immediatally due to concerns over lubricants used as well as unknown materials used in the seals.

This is the 5# CO2 tank, regulator, and pressure relief valve that will be used.

here are a few pictures of the valve board in progress.

Below are a couple pictures of the bar in progress...

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